Surveillance in Birmingham

A report into a planned surveillance system to be set up in Birmingham has come out today, which has shown that the activity was planned with little regard for the law.

The Guardian investigated the plans for ‘Project Champion’, and rather than being aimed at reducing local crime, the CCTV and surveillance was directed by the counter-terrorism unit, and aimed to monitor comings and goings in the predominantly Muslim suburbs .

The full story in The Guardian provides far more detail from the report, but I just wanted to do a quick post to see what people think. Is CCTV better when people approve of it? Why was a narrative around preventing local crime used for installing the cameras, rather than having an open discussion about why the police wanted them? How severly will this have affected the relationships with the community in Birmingham?